Abstract
This is a time of immense change in physical education for children
aged 3-14 in Scotland. Current national curriculum developments and
concerns over the levels of physical inactivity across all ages of the
population have focused attention on the importance of providing quality
experiences in physical education at a young age. These experiences
should focus on whole child development and thus provide children with
the skills, confidence and motivation to continue activity into adult
life. This article outlines the development of the Postgraduate Certificate
in Primary Physical Education at the University of Glasgow and examines
the impact of the decision by the Scottish Executive to fund the expansion
of the Programme to a national level in order to provide teachers with
the knowledge, skills and beliefs to deliver high quality physical education
experiences for primary aged children. Consideration will be given to
the distinctive features of the Programme and to the feedback received
to date from the course participants. Introduction: The Scottish Context
Scotland is experiencing a period of decline in participation in physical
activity among young people and is having to recognise the inevitable
impact of this on the level of health problems in adult life. The most
recent Scottish Health Survey 2003 (Scottish Executive, 2005) revealed
that, in the 2-15 age range, 33% of girls and 25% of boys are not meeting
the required minimum of 60 minutes of accumulated physical activity
each day. Concerns over these statistics are at the centre of the recommendations
from the Physical Activity Task Force (Scottish Executive, 2003) and
the Review Group on Physical Education (Scottish Executive, 2004b) that
Scottish children should receive a minimum of 2 hours of quality physical
education within curriculum time in school.
This increased time allocation for physical education and the emphasis
on quality must also be viewed in the context of current developments
in the Scottish curriculum as a whole. A review of the curriculum in
Scotland for young people from 3-18 years is currently underway. The
values, principles and purposes of this proposed new curriculum, known
as A Curriculum for Excellence (ACfE), are informed by the current legislation
outlined in The Standards in Scotland’s Schools etc. Act (2000)
and the National Priorities for Education (2000). For the first time
in Scotland, the specific duty for schools to provide for the development
of a child’s physical abilities, has been set in statute. This,
in conjunction with the identification of Learning for Life, which has
physical activity as a key outcome, as one of the five National Priorities,
has raised the profile of physical education (Scottish Executive, 2004b).
The increased focus on physical education reflects the national concerns
about health and the growing recognition of the important role education
should have in addressing the issue of inactivity.
Examination of the aims of the proposed curriculum helps to explain
the central role that physical education can play. The new Curriculum
for Excellence aims ‘to enable all young people to become successful
learners, confident individuals, responsible citizens and effective
contributors’ (Scottish Executive, 2004a, p.12). Quality physical
education should then be seen as contributing to the development of
these four capacities and will involve a focus on the physical, social
and emotional health and well being of young people. It is recognised
that the focus is not just on what is to be learned but how it will
be taught (Scottish Executive, 2004a). The emphasis is shifting to teaching
and learning approaches and so the delivery of quality physical education
experiences for all children will require effective teaching.
Effective learning and teaching requires teachers who are confident
and competent in the teaching of physical education and skilled in helping
children to learn, and so the Scottish Executive was confronted with
the problem of how they would ensure the necessary training and qualifications
for those charged with the task of delivering the 2 hours of quality
physical education. The Report from Her Majesty’s Inspectorate,
Improving Physical Education in Primary Schools (2001), whilst acknowledging
the existence of high standards of practice in some schools, raised
various issues relating to the quality of experiences for children in
Primary Physical Education. The Report identified the need to address
the issue of effective teaching and learning in physical education and
highlighted the important role of staff development in achieving this. Teachers of Primary Physical Education
Within the Scottish education system, all teachers with responsibility
for teaching physical education to primary aged children will have undertaken
an initial teacher education programme, which qualifies them to teach
physical education in primary schools. Why then did the Inspectorate
identify a problem with the quality of the experiences on offer to children?
The problem mostly lies in the amount of time devoted to Primary physical
education in these initial teacher education programmes. Scottish teachers
follow one of two main routes to their qualification.
Neither of these routes provides what is really needed, that is, teachers
with the in-depth knowledge of appropriate content and methodology in
PE for pupils aged 3-14 years. The Solution for One Local Authority
Glasgow City Council was aware of the need to extend the knowledge and
confidence of their teachers in delivery of primary PE and in 2004 approached
the University of Glasgow to discuss the provision of sustained Continuing
Professional Development (CPD) for primary teachers within the authority.
Glasgow is one of the authorities in Scotland with a team of specialist
physical education teachers who are bought in by schools to delivery
physical education at a variety of stages. However, not all schools
are able to fund specialist teachers and so there can be the problem
of quality of experiences being delivered in those schools where specialist
teachers are not in place. The council therefore identified the need
to provide CPD for the non-specialist teacher in the schools.
What was particularly visionary about the approach from Glasgow City
Council was the thinking that it would be of value to provide a sustained
programme made up of a series of courses and to have a recognised qualification
attached to the programme. This vision allowed the University to explore
the possibility of developing a two year part-time Certificate Programme
at Masters level.
Staff from the Faculty of Education at the University of Glasgow worked
with members of the Glasgow Primary Physical Education team to write
a Certificate Programme designed to address the staff development issues
of teacher confidence and competence in the teaching of primary physical
education and to provide the opportunity for teachers to engage in debate
on the many factors influencing the nature and delivery of the curriculum.
Thus, in 2004, the first Postgraduate Certificate in Primary Physical
Education (PGCertPPE) in Scotland was launched. The Aims and Structure of the PGCertPPE
The PGCertPPE addresses the following aims:
The above aims are delivered through four courses:
Courses 1 & 2: Primary Physical Education Curriculum 1 &
2
share the same learning outcomes and allow for extended examination of issues relating to the curriculum. These courses offer participants the opportunity to address significant issues on policy and practice in physical education at local authority and national level. Course 3: Working With Others
addresses the issues of multi-agency delivery of physical education and promotion of physical activity for children. Course 4: Independent Research Project enables participants to assume more independent responsibility for their own learning in a specialist area selected by each individual. The Blend of Practical and Academic
At the time of developing the PGCertPPE, as the lead writers, we faced
the challenge of producing a programme that would meet the needs of
Glasgow City Council, in terms of an immediate impact on the quality
of learning and teaching in schools, while fulfilling the academic rigour
and reflection required for a masters level qualification. We aimed
to achieve this through a delivery format of addressing key topics in
physical education whilst using practical sessions to exemplify the
issues and thus provide a focus for debate on these areas. Subsequent
evaluations from course members have provided evidence that these two
aims are being met successfully. Teachers are returning to schools with
immediate ideas to adjust and tailor their work with classes and they
are inspired to find out more and to make sense of what they are doing
and why they are doing it.
“I feel the course has been an excellent opportunity to meet
fellow primary teacher’s who share my determination to bring physical
education to the forefront of peoples minds and indeed lives. I have
found the course to be an extremely valuable learning opportunity for
myself and my colleagues in school. Its immediate impact on my delivery
of the P.E. curriculum has been fantastic!”
(Course member, 2007) “I am providing my pupils with more quality PE experiences, which
was possibly not the case prior to my inclusion on the course. In an
ideal world all teachers should undertake the PGCertPPE if for no other
reason than to question their own practice.” (Course member, 2007) The Growth of the Programme
By late 2005, it was apparent that the PGCertPPE was drawing interest
from the decision makers in Scottish Education. The main motivation
for this interest was the Scottish Executive’s commitment to the
delivery of two hours of curricular physical education per week to all
children as recommended in the Sport 21 Strategy (Sportscotland 2003)
and the promise of an additional 400 physical education teachers (Scottish
Executive, 2004).
The obvious route to achieving this target of the 400 additional teachers
would have been to recruit and train 400 additional specialist teachers
of physical education, although, as previously discussed, this would
have been a route with a limited focus on the age group of 3-14. The
alternative was to look at the current workforce in education and to
provide opportunities for teachers to gain a specialism in primary PE.
This was the route the Scottish Executive chose. In 2005, representatives
from the Scottish Executive Education Department approached the University
and discussions took place regarding the roll out of the Programme across
Scotland. The outcome of the discussion with the Scottish Executive
was the commitment of funding for the Faculty of Education to deliver
the PGCertPPE for approximately 240 teachers commencing in January 2007.
What had started as a small scale project to provide a few teachers
with what they needed to improve the quality of experiences in PE for
their pupils, had in a short space of time, developed into a major National
project with scope to make a huge impact on what was happening in Scottish
schools.
In addition, the Executive commissioned the University of Edinburgh
to develop a similar Programme, thus allowing an even greater number
of teachers across Scotland to access this level of qualification. The
combined number of teachers undertaking the Postgraduate Certificates
provided by the two institutions is, at time of writing, approximately
330. Demand for the Certificate Programme
The PGCertPPE is delivered in a twilight or weekend basis and anyone
embarking on the programme has to be prepared to give 100 hours of their
own time for class contact and a considerably greater amount of time
to study and reflection. So who has this level of commitment to make
these personal sacrifices? The course members are mainly primary class
teachers who have responsibility for the physical education for their
own class or for classes across the school. There are head teachers
of primary schools who wish to extend their understanding and expertise
in relation to the management of physical education within the curriculum
and there are some PE specialist teachers based in Primary Schools.
There are teachers working with the 3-5 age group and there are some
working with young people with additional support needs. This rich mix
of course members is a valuable feature of the programme and early evaluations
provide evidence that the programme is meeting the needs of all. In
the early days of discussions with the Scottish Executive, they did
wonder whether there would be the demand among the teaching workforce
for a programme delivered outside of school hours, but the overwhelming
response from Scottish teachers proved these concerns to be unfounded
and prompted the Executive to more than double the number of places
to be funded. Successful Features of the Programme
Certainly the responses from the course members and feedback from authorities
suggests that the aims of the programme are being achieved. This is
a huge undertaking and it is important to stand back and analyse the
particular features of the programme that contribute to its value. Role of Glasgow University in Initial Teacher Education
From discussions with course members, one of the major successes of
the programme is the recognition of knowledge and skills that the teachers
already possess and the encouragement for them to transfer these skills
to the PE environment. Prior to involvement in the programme, teachers
were using a wide range of effective child centred approaches in their
classroom but found that they changed when in the gym. They taught very
direct skills based lessons and did not have the confidence to involve
the children in their own learning. They delivered a series of tasks
rather than providing learning experiences suited to the needs of each
child. They feel that involvement in the programme has helped them to
see that teaching in PE should not be different to their practice in
other areas and that using child centred approaches are the key to providing
quality experiences in PE. They are making greater use of their knowledge
of the children as individual learners in their planning and delivery
of these learning experiences in the gym.
Why have we been able to have this impact? As members of staff in the
Faculty of Education we work as generalist tutors in primary education
in addition to our role as lecturers in physical education. We therefore
have knowledge of the requirements and nature of the whole primary curriculum,
so are well placed to help students and teachers:
This allows us to examine physical education as part of an integrated
approach to learning and helps teachers to see how learning can take
place ‘across and beyond the traditional subject boundaries’
(Scottish Executive, 2004. p.16). Partnership with Local Authorities
Each of the Programmes is planned and delivered with tutors from the
relevant Education Authority. As might be expected there is a great
deal of similarity in the requirements across the authorities and where
there are some differences it is in terms of the particular practical
areas selected as a focus for exemplification. One of the very positive
features of the initial Programme with Glasgow City Council was the
partnership with the Glasgow Primary PE Team. It was a real advantage
to be working alongside teachers who had a knowledge of the authority
perspective and very current experience and expertise in the field.
Basing the Courses within the Authorities
Each of the programmes is based in the Education Authority and staff
travel to deliver the inputs in one of their primary schools. This has
the obvious advantage of reducing the travel time for course members
but more importantly this means that we are working in the ‘real
context’ for teachers. We face the same problems they face of
small working areas, limited apparatus and dual use of dining halls
as gym halls. This allows us to discuss and find solutions to the issues
that are very relevant to them in the everyday delivery of their lessons. Use of Virtual Learning Environment and Web-based Resources
The use of the University Virtual Learning Environment is proving to
be a valuable tool for communication and management of the programme
and there is huge potential for sharing of ideas within and across the
programme groups. We have been able to use the site to establish shortcuts
to important websites or policy documents, thus helping to ease the
pressure of time for these students who are managing a full-time job
along with their study. The location of programmes across Scotland is one of the strengths of the Project but also could have potentially presented us with a real problem of student access to the library and reading materials. The purchasing of e-books and digitising of chapters and journal articles has meant that students have access to an electronic collection of reading materials. This has been well received by the course members although it is important to recognise that not everyone feels comfortable with use of information technology and where necessary, paper or disc copies are provided. Links to Further Study
The programme is accredited by the University of Glasgow and provides
opportunities for course members to further enhance their professional
qualifications by providing evidence to support application for Professional
Recognition with the General Teaching Council for Scotland. Successful
completion of the programme will allow for possible progression to Diploma
and Masters Courses within the University. The Impact of the Programme
Interim feedback on the impact of the programme from the course member
evaluations, and reflections in assignments, provide evidence that there
are already improvements in the quality of learning experiences for
the children. Course members state that they have grown in confidence
and are enjoying and understanding their teaching more. Of particular
interest is the impact on other members of staff. The course members
are sharing their experiences and insights with colleagues and for some,
their colleagues’ interest is generated by an awareness that something
different is happening in the gym.
The Glasgow City group of teachers from the initial programme have
reported that one year on from completion, they have developed their
roles in physical education. Some have taken on mentoring roles with
other staff, some have taken on responsibility for coordination and
delivery of the physical education programme across the school and others
have been involved in working groups at school and authority level.
It is clear from their responses that the programme has had a continued
impact on them. The gathering of information on the impact of the programme
was done at an informal level with the initial group. A joint full Evaluation
of the impact of the Scottish Executive funded phase of the programme
at Glasgow and Edinburgh Universities is underway. This will allow for
more formal analysis of the impact on the quality of physical education
provision. The Future
The Scottish Executive has already committed funding for a second cohort
with approximately 180 places in Glasgow and 100 in Edinburgh to commence
in 2008. Two more Universities are in discussion with the Executive
regarding further commitment of money to support the programmes in the
next financial round. Decisions have yet to be made about priority areas
for Government funding beyond 2008 but it is hoped that the success
of the programme and the continued focus on the role of quality physical
education in addressing health issues will add strength to the case
for continued funding.
If funding is not continued it is hoped that the Education Authorities
will be prepared to support teachers on the programme. Glasgow City
Council provided the funding for the initial programme because they
had identified the continuing professional development of the non-specialist
teacher of physical education to be an authority priority. It is therefore
possible that the programme will continue to serve the needs of teachers
in future years. Conclusion
The Postgraduate Certificate in Primary Physical Education was developed
to provide for the continuing professional development needs of a small
group of teachers in one area of Scotland. As outlined, the changing
curriculum context and growing health agenda have resulted in the development
of a National Programme. The time has been right for the raising of
the profile of physical education for 3-14 year olds and, at the University
of Glasgow, we have been fortunate to have been in a position to respond
very quickly to the demands of this focus on physical education. Many
Scottish teachers have shown immense personal commitment to improving
the quality of learning experiences for their pupils and we consider
this to be the most significant feature of the Project. Quality physical
education for children 3-14 years is in very safe and enthusiastic hands.
References
Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Education
(2001). Improving Physical Education in Primary Schools, Edinburgh:
Her Majesty’s Inspectorate
Scottish Sports Council (1998). Sport 21: Nothing
Left to Chance, Edinburgh: The Scottish Sports Council
Scottish Executive. (1998) Towards a Healthier
Scotland, A White Paper on Health.
Scottish Executive (2000).Standards in Scotlands
Schools etc. Act, Edinburgh: Scottish Executive
Scottish Executive (2003). Let’s make
Scotland more active: A strategy for physical activity, Edinburgh:
HMSO
Scottish Executive (2004a) A Curriculum for
Excellence: The Curriculum Review Group, Edinburgh:
Scottish Executive (2004b). The Report of the
Review Group on Physical Education, Edinburgh: HMSO
Scottish Executive (2005). Scottish Health
Survey 2003, Volume 3, Edinburgh: Scottish Executive
Sportscotland (2003). Sport 21: 2003-2007:
The National Strategy for Sport: Shaping Scotland’s Future,
Edinburgh: Sportscotland
Contact
Theresa Campbell
Faculty of Education University of Glasgow Glasgow, UK Email: t.campbell@educ.gla.ac.uk Liz McGhie Faculty of Education University of Glasgow Glasgow, UK Email: e.mcghie@educ.gla.ac.uk ![]() http://www.icsspe.org/portal/index.php?w=1&z=5 |